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How One Go-Getter Landed His Dream Job at a Hot Startup

If you've always wanted to work for a hot new startup, but you aren't sure if you've got the necessary experience, don't give up just yet. Max Crowley is the senior community manager for Uber in Chicago, and he was able to convince the executives at Uber to give him a chance — even though his past experience didn't necessarily line up with this new position.

San Francisco-based startup Uber is growing like crazy, as it has expanded its services in 32 markets and plan to hire hundreds of employees worldwide this year. If working for a hot startup is your idea of a dream job, read on to learn about how Max was able to land his job with Uber, and why Uber employees are so passionate about what they do.

Q&A With Max Crowley, Senior Community Manager at Uber, Chicago

How did you land your position at Uber?

I was living in Chicago at the time, and I knew that Chicago was on the roadmap to be one of the first cities launched that year. So, I started hounding people at Uber — to try to get on the launch team for Chicago. I just showed up places where I knew Ryan Graves (Uber's head of operations) would be, followed him on Twitter and shot him emails over the course of a few months — in general I just tried to convince him that I was the right fit. They were looking for that hustler, go-getter attitude and I was able to convince him that I could be a valuable part of the team.

Wait, so you just showed up places you knew he was?

Yeah, that makes it sound creepy. Uber had a recruiting event in Chicago, and when we're in the process of launching a city we'll have a kickoff happy hour where we invite people who are signed up already, or we'll share it on our social media channels and one of the goals is to recruit for our local team. I was able to attend one of those happy hours that summer, and I was able to connect with Ryan.

You've got to show the right determination and passion about a company, Uber is obviously a company that people want to work for and it's a competitive hiring process — so you've really got to show your passion for the product and the role that you're going for. You then see that passion in their output as an employee, and that's what I was able to convey to him that summer and he gave me the opportunity.

Where were you before this position?

I was at Accenture in a systems integration consulting role — so very different from what I'm doing now. I had good luck out of school, did the corporate thing, then decided I really wanted to do something in the startup space. At the time I left to work for Uber I was interested in other startups, but nothing made as much sense as Uber did. I was able to be part of the launch team in Chicago where I grew up, and I just felt like I could have a real impact on growing the business here.

So this job at Uber is vastly different from the one you had before — how were you able to show Uber that you were the best fit for this position, coming from such a different background?

I did some blogging throughout the process with Uber, I was active on social media channels and continued to read a lot about Uber and stayed really engaged. Throughout the process there is a creative exercise that all community managers need to pass, and that was another opportunity to show that you have the right skills even if your background doesn't scream "community manager." That's something that we still continue to do, all community managers have a creative exercise that they have to complete, and it gives us a good sense of whether or not they'll be an awesome fit.

What is your average day like? Is it routine, or are there always surprises?

I manage a team of five community managers, including a few who are working on remote cities. So my role has shifted a bit, but it still involves a small portion of customer support, being on the front lines and talking to the customers who are using Uber and ensuring every experience is awesome. That includes working with our driver operations team, to let them know about things that are happening and assist them with their quality initiatives. Social media as well, managing our growing social media base — being really active on Twitter and Facebook. That involves some Uber campaigns, giveaways, announcing new products and working on marketing partnerships — however we can spread the Uber brand in Chicago, trying to get more awareness and always trying to drive more signups.

What are some community initiatives that you are most proud of?

What I'm most proud of are some of the things we did last summer. We're working on a big intramural campaign in Chicago, trying to sponsor some intramural softball and volleyball teams — and we're bringing back the Uber tank top. They're neon tank-tops with the Uber logo on the front, and they were a huge hit last summer. We sponsor a bunch of teams and they've got an assortment of neon colors, and they're great branding. Last year we did ice cream trucks in the system, and that's another thing that was really unbelievable to work on. So that's something I'm really proud of that was a great success for us in the past.

What makes someone a good candidate for Uber?

You've got to be really down to grind, and really passionate about the products — I think that's number one. You're growing a business, and there's a lot of work to do, so we really look for people who are excited about all portions of the role, and everything the company is doing. We're looking for self-starters — that entrepreneur startup mentality — and it's really important when we're launching all these cities, because when we're launching new cities you're basically a mini startup and it's all on you, it's all from scratch. It's super important that people are really bought-in and self-starters, and can get through the immense grind that it takes to build a business.

Tell me about the company culture and perks of working at Uber.

Even though it is city to city, there is an overall company mentality — that is one of the things we've worked really hard to do in growing this team. You still feel really connected. I literally feel like there are a bunch of people in this company who are my best friends in the world, and I only see them a few times a year. We're really interconnected globally over chat rooms, you work across cities a lot sharing best practices and training. We're growing together. So although there are certain intricacies that are different city to city, the company is very intertwined.

Everyone is just crazy intelligent, crazy driven and immensely creative. I'm always impressed by the work that we do, and you really keep your passion for what you're doing when you see so many cities with so many people doing awesome things all the time. Our company has had this really wild real-world impact, we're improving the lives of thousands of drivers, we're making cities more efficient to get around and improving the lifestyles of our riders as well. I think it's the real-world impact that makes us different from a lot of other tech companies, and it really keeps everyone going when you see people adopting the product and using it more. It gets you really excited and it plays into our overall company passion and the hard work everyone is putting out. It's a really exciting place to be working.

What makes this a dream job?

The range of items that you get to work on makes it a dream job. I've done things I never could have imagined doing and I met people that I never thought I would, and it's all because we have this great company culture and you're really poised to grow the business. There is no other role that I could have at another company where I would touch everything from customer support to big strategic business development fields. It keeps you going, you're never bored and you're never really satisfied either — you're always itching for the next thing. And if you've got that go-getter attitude then you just really thrive here.

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